During our Christmas/New year break on the West Coast, I decided to do the first SOTA activation of this mountain, visible from Westport.
The summit is accessed from the Denniston plateau and could be a drive-up given a suitable 4WD vehicle. Not sure if permission would be needed but there is no signage and Kordia have a substantial site at the top. The road is pretty good with just a couple of gnarly bits. Anyway, it's a nice walk from the Whareatea Road turnoff. I drove up a bit to find a nice parking area between the two sets of beehives. A very pleasant walk to the top with mostly easy grade. Plenty of things to look at on the way so walking is a good option.
Weather had been wet and windy but there looked like a bit of a window to exploit, Metservice forgot to notify the mountain though! It was claggy and windy at the top with intermittent showers. I set up just to the South of the tower with some protection from the wind. A convenient waratah supported the pole and the EFHW wire snaked around and over the bluff. There was no interference evident from the large commercial equipment on the tower, mostly microwave.
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| EFHW snaking around the bluff |
I had worked one of the locals via the Westport repeater whilst driving to the start but after a couple of calls on the Wesport repeater from the summit, had no takers on 146.5 MHz. I wonder if people have forgotten how to use simplex?
HF was playing nicely and I soon had the loyal ZL chasers in the log on 40m SSB including S2S with Nick ZL3NLA on Trig M. I then headed up the bands and worked Scott ZL1KB on 20m; WB6POT, F4WBN and JH1MXV on 15m CW and K7SS on 10m. Cold and damp, I headed back to 40m to await a chance to work Dave ZL3DRN on Snowy Peak for another S2S. Duly achieved and also Paul ZL3PA who was having trouble hearing me earlier. A good haul so I packed up and headed down to find a sheltered spot for lunch and then back to the car.
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| The Escarpment, drops away pretty quickly! |
This is a really nice summit, I'm keen to come back and do it on a good day to see the views! The abundance of minerals is obvious in the track metal and the walls along the side of the track, coal seams everywhere!
Getting there: Turn off the highway at Waimangaroa and drive up to Denniston, turn right onto Whareatea Mine Road and just before you reach the locked gates, turn right. Find somewhere to park and follow the 4WD track to the top.
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| Turnoff to the summit road |
Permission: Not required Mt Rochfort Conservation Area
Distance ~4km to the top with ~400m of vertical gain. About 1 hour
Repeaters: Westport 675 accessible, Greymouth not. No local contacts.
Trig: Yes and substantial infrastructure towers and buildings
Cell - 4G on Skinny/Spark
